Bonnie Bishop, “Free” (Be Squared): In the second song on “Free,” Bonnie Bishop sings about a woman who “ain’t no shrinkin’ violet.” You’d never mistake the Nashville-based Texas native for one, either, after you hear her belt out this swaggeringly Stonesy rocker. And that’s not the only bracingly organic blast the raspy-voiced singer and songwriter delivers here: There are also “Keep Using Me” and “Bad Seed,” the latter fueled by slide guitar and pounding piano.

Bishop proves just as potent as a balladeer. She co-wrote, with Al Anderson, “Not Cause I Wanted To,” one of the standout tracks on Bonnie Raitt’s latest album, “Slipstream.” That song is not here, but you do get the equally stellar “World Like This” and “The Best Songs Come From Broken Hearts.”

Broadcast, “Berberian Sound Studio” (Warp): From its start in the mid-’90s, the British band Broadcast seemed influenced by soundtrack music. Like Stereolab, it looked back to visions of the future, building on Space Age music from the ’60s and spacious electronics of the ’70s to create something that sounded new and contemporary, especially on 2000’s seminal “The Noise Made by People.”

Broadcast vocalist Trish Keenan died in January 2011, but she and partner James Cargill already had composed the soundtrack to British director Peter Strickland’s “Berberian Sound Studio,” a film about an obsessive film sound engineer.

With 39 tracks in about 38 minutes, the album plays as a continuous soundscape: sometimes churchy and imposing, sometimes pastoral and beautiful, sometimes angelic and ethereal, sometimes punctuated by unsettling screams and eerie voices.

The Game, “Jesus Piece” (Interscope): The Game has titled this album “Jesus Piece,” and an African-American Christ graces the cover. That doesn’t mean Game has become a holy roller or that his newest work is ruled by religious imagery. Instead, it’s about going bad and loving God — how a rhyme-spitting MC can have a gangster lean while remaining spiritual.

There’s an unadulterated bacchanalia of drugs, thugs and carnality on “Celebration” and the barking “Ali Bomaye.” Yet Game’s struggle between staying street and keeping God in his heart (and the club) is clear on bumping, dippy cuts like “Heaven’s Arms,” when he strolls into the VIP area with “Part the Red Sea in red Louboutins, who the don?/Packing heat like two LeBrons/It keep you higher than heaven’s arms.”

The tension between earthly goods and higher ground is most palpable when Jamie Foxx goes with Game to the Lord’s house on “Hallelujah.” After telling the Almighty he’s trying to reach Him with all his might, Game admits that thinking about girls while in church is wrong: “I wanna live righteous and you know I love Jesus/But you can’t catch the Holy Ghost in a Prius.”

Various artists, “The Music of ‘Nashville’ Original Soundtrack: Season 1, Volume 1” (Big Machine): One thing you can say about “Nashville,” ABC’s prime-time soap opera: It gets the music right. As you can hear on this disc, even with the show’s actors doing all the singing, the results are as good as anything the city’s Music Row has to offer.

Perhaps that’s not surprising because T Bone Burnett did the bulk of the producing, along with the always-estimable Buddy Miller. They have a terrific collection of songs to work with, and they manage to strike a balance between commercial accessibility and rootsy character.

“Love Like Mine” and “Telescope,” sung by Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere’s character), exude a spitfire attitude that would fit right in on a Miranda Lambert album. Several other numbers play up country’s duet tradition, as with Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) and Deacon Clayborne (Charles Esten) on “No One Will Ever Love You” and Gunnar Scott (Sam Palladio) and Scarlett O’Connor (Clare Bowen) on “If I Didn’t Know Better” and “When the Right One Comes Along.”

And Britton and Panettiere’s rousing, rocked-up “Wrong Song” is every bit the show-stopper it was in the TV show.

Sonic Liberation Front, “Jetway Confidential” (High Two): It feels like the 1970s on this CD from free-jazz big band the Sonic Liberation Front.

The Front, led by drummer and composer Kevin Diehl, features a percussive, African-laced undertow that dips heavy into grooves.

Blurts and squeals also abound, as does an artful sense of space and sound. “Umami” is especially intriguing, with its seductive horns, and “Yemaya” emphasizes the group’s Afro-Cuban roots. “One Two” has that spacey stuff covered.

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